Jacquie’s Blog: Runnin’ Down a Dream

January 8, 2014 1:51 pm

2014 will be a big and exciting year for Finnegans. Jacquie shares her inspiration for the year ahead and how she’ll be Runnin’ Down A Dream in 2014.

2014 The Year of Runnin’ Down a Dream

Every year I name the year and this year – 2014- I chose the Year of ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’. I am admittedly a Tom Petty fan and I do like the song, but this selection is really more about what is going on within the FINNEGANS company and how I am feeling about it.

As many of you may know, FINNEGANS is a beer company and we donate 100 percent of our profits to purchase produce from local growers and that produce goes to food shelves for those in need. With the number of those in need of food assistance having doubled in the past decade, our work has never been more relevant or important.

2013 was a challenging year for us – it felt to me like we worked twice as hard with less results. In retrospect, I am calling 2013 my Great Year of Learning. There were lots of things that happened outside of my control but many things within my control.

Here’s what I learned and why we are runnin’ down dreams in 2014 :

Especially in the field of social enterprise, there needs to be alignment around the mission – this means alignment within the core team, beer distributor partners, business partners, vendors – everyone. It is absolutely detrimental to our business when this does not happen.

We need to sell to folks who ‘believe what we believe’ (Thank you Simon Sinek!) If we work smart and do a good job at this we will be reaching our goals and dreams in 2014.

In order for a company to thrive, the team needs to personally thrive as well. After reading the ‘Dream Manager’ by Mathew Kelly, our entire FINNEGANS team is now working together to help support each other’s dreams for 2014 – so we are all runnin’ down our personal and company dreams as a team!

We have some very lofty goals and we have ground to make up in 2014 but I am very confident that we will prevail – I have set a stretch donation goal of $125,000 – this will bring our total impact to near the half million mark. We will do this from working with aligned partners, selling to folks who believe what we believe and chasing our dreams.

We are on a mission to continue to build out our sustainable business model while supporting local growers and getting healthy food to those in need…we think it is a dream job and would welcome your support!! 🙂